'''[[File:My_Post.jpg|thumb|364px]]hi, this story is by Nightfury4eva,[https://httydfanon.fandom.com/wiki/User:Nightfury4eva] keep in mind that this is how I view my dragons and this is how I write. '''

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'''[[File:My_Post.jpg|thumb|364px]]hi, this story is by [[User:Nightfury4eva|Nightfury4eva]], keep in mind that this is how I view my dragons and this is how I write. '''

Contents

please note, *this is important to read first

the following story may be considered scary in some parts, slight violence, gore (will not go into great detail just some detail), death, slight crude humor(may make some uncomfortable), some profanity ( it will all be hashed out with * but the lesser words will be used. Again some parts of this story may be considered scary, please consider this before continuing thank you for your time.

prologue

A long time in the past...in a place unknown to dragons and humans alike, a monster waited in the darkness, green eyes bright with promise waiting for the right moment to strike, it paces back and forth waiting for the rift to open, the day begins to go dark and the creature grows more restless, it knows she's out there the bright rift forms and the creature steps through.

Neberu

meanwhile in the hidden world... Costa knew something was off, as day turned to night she sat watching the dark circle envelope the sun, she sat hearing the dark waves lapping at the black shores her blue and green scales darkened. the crystals that adorned her body turned dark and began to vibrate.

" whats going on?" she whispered to her mate, who shrugged looking worried.

she really didn't want to screw up her first year as the queen of the hidden world. she flew back inside and landed in her cave, her large claws clicked on the floor there was something out there something dark and bad, she knew it was here just not where or what it was.

the creature looked around, the bright light burned its eyes, it hissed backing into a dark corner. alarm bells rang in the back of its mind, someone knew it was here a passing dragon looked surprised at it Neberu approached the dragon, and put its long-fingered hand on the dragon's snout the dragon's scales turned black and its eyes turned green as red energy flowed from the dragon to Neberu. when Neberu removed its hand the dragon's scales returned to normal.

Costa was on high alert, something was wrong, she flew through the hidden world transparent wings reflecting the colors of the world. she looked around dark eyes scanning the colorful world, she spotted a dark spot in the brightness of the mushrooms. when she landed she spotted something she had never seen before.

Neberu looked to the sky, the dragon that knew it was here has found it. the frost blue dragon landed, it had huge horns and crystals adorning her, she had green splotches all over her body outlined with pale violet. Neberu instantly knew this dragon ran this insane colorful dimension.

"what are you?" Costa asked.

"I stopped knowing that a long time ago," Neberu responded.

"How did you get here?" Costa growled.

"you saw it too, I used the rift I'm looking for someone," Neberu said absentmindedly looking around.

"the dragon you're looking for is not alive yet," Costa growled somehow knowing who they were talking about.

"Pity, I came all this way, the flame of revenge burns eternal and I am ready to wait an eternity," Neberu hissed.

"What makes you think I'll let you stay," Costa growled.

"My intentions for this dragon are none of your concern," Neberu replied.

"you come here, from whatever plane of existence your from, and ask for the most powerful dragon yet and tell me that I don't need to know what you're doing," Costa growled.

"I need this dragon, to use her power for returning me to what I once was if she survives I'll use her as a superweapon to reap revenge on those who made me this way there is a war coming, join the right side, or the darkness I'm about to spread will consume everything," Neberu explained.

"you deranged fool, I will never join you," Costa growled.

she clapped her wings together, and a wave of power spread across the walls, Neberu was swept up in it, her crystals started vibrating and bright light began emanating from her she used the light to contain the creature she used her white-hot acid to melt an obelisk she tried to put Neberu into it, in a burst of white light the cavern exploded and caved in, all that was left was the obelisk and the dark caved in rooms.

...years later...

Kea flew through the cavern that ended her mother, she looked around at the wreckage, a dark abyss inhabited the middle of the floor she dove into it as whispers of death entered her mind. she flew deeper into the darkness as the whispers grew louder, they were growing to screams, furious yells shouts of agony and screams of terror, suddenly she landed, a dark obelisk in front of her the voices in her head went silent as dragons leached from the shadow surrounding. she stood in the darkness the obelisk started glowing soft green, it seemed to call out like it wanted to be destroyed, she couldn't resist, she sprayed acid on the obelisk and it dissolved into five iron bands. and a black creature, with bright green eyes that lit up with delight.

Kea stood there blankly as darkness closed in around her.

....many more years later...

a red and black Rot ripper glided through the hidden world, her nerves were on fire, every light every sound made her jump, she had to do it, there was no other way. She flew into her chambers and looked at the one egg that made it, what she wouldn't give to trade that one for the other two. She carefully picked it up and held her barbed tail close to it, but she couldn't bring herself to kill it. shouts of fighting dragons sounded outside and she nearly jumped out of her skin, she flew off to go observe what was going on. At the scene were hundreds of dragons all very mad, she managed to evade them carrying her egg, this was just the opportunity she was waiting for. She quickly flew across the cavern roof and made it to the falls, she flew up and out of the hidden world she cast the egg into the ocean watching it bob for a moment then sink to the bottom she quickly flew back into the hidden world job unfinished she landed in her cave, her mate Keil was asleep on the floor she took one regretful look at him then plunged her stinger deep into his flesh, he stopped breathing. still not finished with her job she breathed in deep then plunged her stinger into her heart, she fell to the ground dead as the masses of angry dragons poured in around them.

the egg got swept up in a current and drifted away...not seen again for some time

Hearts of shadow

“ Where exactly are we going?” Elka asked flapping her powerful wings, as big as they were they didn’t make any noise fine fur covered her wings and blocked air resistance and sound.

“Will you shut up, you keep whining and I will throw us both into the ocean,” Elka joked.

“Make me,” Copper said stubbornly.

Elka swung one wing around and flew straight at copper, she bowled him over and they both fell back. He slipped out of her grasp and did a backflip in mid-air to escape her. She spread her wings and stopped plummeting. He ran into her side and they fought each other while falling through the air in a tangle of wings and tail. Elka broke her wings free and let go of Copper he flipped over before hitting the water and flew back up to her.

“ Would you two stop goofing off,” the Light fury ordered.

“Yeah tell that to Copper,” Elka said looking over her shoulder.

Copper was flying at her from behind, she felt his claws grip the base of her tail, she flapped down and forward, going limp and doing a backflip she ended up in hover position whilst Copper fell.

“Uhh..is he gonna be o-” The Light fury started.

“He’ll be fine,” Elka stated.

“But it looks like…”

“He can fly,”

“But,”

“I did this once too,”

“Elka!”

“Okay, he’s not gonna fly,” Elka opened her eyes and tucked into a power dive, she noticed Toothless had come over.

The more the merrier, I guess. Her tail began to make a high-pitched whistling sound. She narrowed her pupils and slowly out-stretched her paws to grab Copper. She dove under him, she flipped upside-down and caught him then flipped over, Copper's feet barely scathed the surface of the water.

“A little late don’t you think?” Copper teased.

“Like you could do any better,” she retorted.

“Girls, girls you're both pretty. Now can we get to it?” Toothless joked.

“Fine king bossy,” Elka teased.

“He’s more of a tyrant,” Copper whispered to Elka.

Elka snickered, ” What?” Toothless asked.

“What?” Copper said loudly.

Elka carried Copper a bit higher. Then dropped him, he spread his wings and soared up to her and they caught up with Toothless and the Light Fury.

“I was starting to think we lost you,” the Light Fury joked.

“Well, you’ll have to do better than that,” Elka laughed. “Come on we’re almost there,” She turned and flew down a huge waterfall-like formation.

Elka and copper followed tucking in their wings and cutting through the air, they landed on a beach little ways down.

“You guys ready?” the Light Fury asked.

“Let’s go,” Elka announced flying off of the beach.

She entered a world of color and lights, everything was glowing she hadn’t seen anything like it before, yet it seemed so familiar. She blinked once and she didn’t know where she was. She had landed on a strange dark blue rock formation. She was sitting next to Copper, below her was Toothless and Light, they were beckoning them to come down, Copper took a step forward and slipped his feet flew out beneath him he fell off the edge of the rocks he landed on his side and rolled down the hill. He ended up in a blue bush, the sticky green sap was all over him.

“They see me rollin’ they hateing...”He sang.

Then everything froze and went quiet Elka called out to her friends, they didn’t respond, but someone else did.

“Leave here now,” the voice sounded like it was many dragons but all speaking at once.

Elka turned in a circle and looked around but she couldn’t find the source

“It’s looking for you, the longer you stay the longer you’re at risk, go before it sees you,” the voice echoed.

“What! Who?” Elka asked fear tinting her voice</p>

“Look it’s not safe for you, there’s a secret lurking in the shadows and just around every corner. At the heart of it, all are creatures you wouldn’t dream of seeing in your worst nightmares,” it hissed softly.

“Be careful who you trust, be careful when you speak, you never know who’s listening.”

Elka’s eyes widened with fear, the sounds, and colors of the world returned as if nothing had ever happened but one sentence rang above the clamor. “You never know who’s listening,”.

“Elka, are you okay?” Copper asked from behind her.

She snapped out of her thoughts and turned around to look at Copper.

“Copper did...did you hear anything...weird one minute ago?”

N-no one minute ago I was falling down the hill,”

"No that was five minutes ago,” Elka corrected.

“No, it wasn’t,”

“wait...You didn’t...it...time,” Elka stuttered looking stupid.

“Light help, I think I broke Elka,” Copper fussed.

“Okay okay, I’ll handle it from here, you guys can explore meet here later, okay.” Light said flying up to Elka.

“But,” Toothless stuttered.

“You’ll be fine okay, Elka and I just need a bit of girl time,” Light said definitively stamping out all protest by giving Toothless a hard glare.

“He may be the alpha but he cannot control me," Elka muttered smirking.

The light fury took off spreading her iridescent wings and Elka followed, they sored high above the dragon kingdom. Elka took in the sights and smells of the strange new world, giant fungi reached up, threatening to punch holes in the ceiling, crystals of all shapes and colors glowed dimly, changing to a deep blue color when Elka passed by them. Plants of all shapes and sizes showed off their bioluminescence in an awe-striking light show on twenty-four-seven. it was all so amazing that she almost forgot about the stranger's mysterious warning.

"here we are, "Light announced landing gracefully.

"Wow," Elka whispered.

along the wall were carved statues of dragons, all sitting regally heads heald high, lush plant life surrounded them and crystals were growing out of their hearts and above their heads. above the statue's to the right was a label reading 'Queens' the line ended at the fifth statue and to the left was labeled 'kings' and it ended at the twelfth one but zipplebacks and Quakens were carving out another one that looked like Toothless.

Elka walked down the line of queens, they all looked like the same dragon. The statues had small antlers with prongs at the end and spikes down their backs, their faces had oblong black eyes and their bottom jaw had large teeth sticking out in front but they disappeared further down along their face, their talons were unlike Elka's with the foot about the same size but long sharp powerful claws attached to the base of their feet their bodies looked sleek like a nightfury's but had darker splotches adown their spine and face.

"Hey Light, what dragon is this?" Elka asked cocking her head at the statues.

"oh, those their Rot rippers," Light replied sitting next to Elka.

"never heard of them, "Elka muttered.

"yeah...that's because they're extinct...we killed them all," Light murmured looking down at her feet, her striking blue eyes misted over.

"...oh," Elka said sympathetically.

"why?" she then asked curiosity taking over.

"because of her," Light growled looking towards a dark statue where the line ended.

Elka got up and walked over to the statue, somehow Elka felt that there was a deathly elegance to this one she felt overwhelmed by emotion...not all of them hers. The statue was made of obsidian and the foliage around it had withered and died, the crystals around it were black. The only color around the statue were mushrooms and a giant emerald placed in one of its eyes.

"that's Nyra," Light hissed

"why is her statue black?" Elka asked.

"she was a scar on the hidden worlds past, a queen who was working with a great evil hidden in the heart of this place she was trying to destroy us, draining our emotions and life. This went on for years before we put a stop to it. We killed her and her mate and cast her egg into the ocean then the king ordered that all Rot rippers be killed on account of what Nyra did," Light explained.

'Elka knew there was more to the story than that, that this dragon was not in fact evil but she couldn't explain. She shuffled her feet uncomfortably. there was a long pause where both Light and Elka were silent, the only noises were the soft humming of the crystals and the occasional explosion from the construction team.

'"come with me, there's something you should see," Light said springing to her feet.

They walked to the mouth of a cave, the rock surrounding it was dark indigo and everything reflected off the water, royal blue crystals were coming off the walls hanging over a stepping stone path directly below two smaller caves on the opposite wall. Elka splashed through the water looking at the intriguing wall at the far end of the cave it looked like a color full beach on plateau's of coral sand and all, three curved deep green glass formations sat on the sand glistening in a pale yellow light.

"This is the throne room of the queens, legend has it that the small plants in here glow blue when our new queen returns," Light explained

Elka sat on one of the stepping stones and took in the beauty of the place, the trickle of running water, the bubbling from the geothermal pools, and the soft humming of the crystals. She closed her eyes and listened. all of it then went silent, as if the world was put on pause. Elka opened her eyes and her heart started beating faster. Something was standing in front of her, a black dragon that looked as if it was made of smoke it held it's head high and its antlers resembled Elka's.

Nyra's black eyes burned with green flame " be careful child, names have power beyond belief your lucky it was just me and not anything worse," she hissed.

"a-are you the voice from earlier?" Elka asked looking at the ground.

" good job," Nyra laughed, no real praise in her voice.

"what's looking for me?" Elka blurted.

Nyra's gaze darkened, "I wish I could tell you, but don't make the same mistake I did, don't let it find you," Nyra hissed.

"Why does it want me?"Elka whined fear pulsing through her like electricity.

Nyra's black eyes burned with a green flame and the same color aura appeared around her, she muttered ancient words that didn't seem from this planet green lightning struck Elka's paw, pain shot through her but coming out of her wound was not blood, but a pale blue substance that was not quite liquid not quite a gas. It pooled on the stone and her wound closed up.

" who?" Elka whined acid built up in her throat, she felt like she wanted to vomit.

"do you promise you will not say its name," Nyra asked dead serious.

Elka nodded, Nyra reached out a long claw and wrote letters in the water. When she was done Elka leaned over to read them. as soon as hse did a thousand images flashed through her head she could hear shrieks of dying dragons blood all over the walls, life spilled all over the hidden world. however terrible those were it was nothing compared to the last thing she saw, it was night she looked out from the cave she was hiding from something she peered out of a corner and standing in a dark doorway was a dark figure it's head bent to the side and eyes were as green as a neon lime peel, it got closer and closer to Elka, I reached a long boney finger out its sharp teeth glinted and then it touched her. Elka was jolted back to reality she was staring down at the writing in the water she finally read the name of what was hunting her.

Neberu (pronounced Neb-EEr-rU)

shattered dreams

<pdir="ltr"> </p>

<pdir="ltr"> </p>

Elka could feel Nyra's gaze boring down on her back, a bazillion questions raced through her mind. What's so special about me? Why is Nyra here? is she a ghost? am I insane? Why am I talking to an evil dragon?Is there more to the story?

"I can answer a few of your questions" Nyra replied coolly.

"Hey, get out of my mind," Elka growled.

"I a not a ghost, that would mean I'm dead," Nyra explained.

"But you are dead," Elka said uncertainty tainted her voice, she gave Nyra a skeptical look.

"no, I'm not. the same thing I showed you earlier is pure energy, power, life force if you will. When I joined the shadow legion Ne-... I mean it took part of that energy away and stored it in a crystal, along with the power of many others eventually when it gathers enough it'll use you to channel that power whilst adding your energy to its collection. if it takes all of your power you die, and it's not a nice way to go you get torn apart atom by atom,"

"why me?" Elka yelped

"because you are more important than you think, I tell you any more about your self and you become a beacon," Nyra hissed.

"Why did you join the shadow legion? what even is that?"

"the shadow legion is a group of dragons that willingly or not were touched by...it, they are without most of their life and only survive by pledging their allegiance to N-...it, it can take over their minds at any point in time, but they always look like normal dragons on the outside. the only reason I joined was to keep y- er...my eggs safe, it made a deal with me, my eggs and free will for my allegiance and power. I took the deal and survived by killing others for myself. when the dragons found out they killed me my mate and threw my surviving egg into the ocean,"

"Why do you keep referring to Nebe-" Elka was cut off by Nyra putting a paw to her mouth.

" DON'T EVER SAY IT'S NAME, if you do you will summon it to your location, and it can't know you're alive!" Nyra roared.

Elka was about to say something else but Nyra was doing something weird, she turned her head to the side then darted to four spaces looked up and down cocking her head to the side, she looked around wearily.

"look I have to go, I can't help you anymore right now if you have any problems tell me. Say my name and I'll be there, okay," Nyra cast a last look at Elka and shattered into black smoke that soon dissipated.

The world returned to normal Elka soon realized that Light was staring at her."

"are you okay? you look like you've seen a ghost, "Light asked empathetically.

"Yeah, something like that," Elka muttered absently mindedly."

"...okay...oh hey it's time to go, do you think the guys have burned the world down yet?" Light joked.

"in all seriousness, though it was possibly a bad idea to leave them alone," Elka laughed masking her fear.

Elka and light flew back the way they came to find Copper and Toothless wrestling in the weird plants, Toothless seemed to be winning...whatever the stakes were. When Elka and Light touched down the boy's froze, Toothless was standing over Copper, his front feet on Copper's stomach, Copper was on his back all four legs in the air

"Toothless, just in case you don't know Copper is my boyfriend," Elka joked.

"haha very funny..." Toothless said sarcastically rolling his eyes.

Toothless got off of Copper and Copper got up and shook himself.

"Okay, we're gonna go to one more place you guy's ready?" Light asked.

"why not?" Copper responded fanning out his wings.

They all took to the air flying up to a bright room where gigantic yellow crystals stood in the center, the queen's throne room couldn't hold a candle to this. huge platforms were below with hundreds, no thousands of dragons gathered there. Light flew to the corner of the crystal and awaited our arrival. Toothless landed next to her, Elka hesitated a little before landing not sure if she was allowed to because it seemed to be the throne room of the king and she was far from royalty. She landed next to Light on the opposite side and she shoved herself into a dark corner where the eyes of the dragons could barely reach.

" Why did you choose to land here again?" Copper asked sitting next to her.

Elka didn't respond, she watched Toothlesswalk up to the front of the crystal, spread his wings, and roar. the uproar of the dragons in response was astonishing, the echoes of all the dragons bounced around the wall then simultaneously they all bowed Toothless stepped back and looked at Light.

" hey Elka, you should go up there," light nodded towards the top of the crystal.

" haha, very funny Light," Elka said rolling her eyes.

"I'm serious Elka, you should go," Light muttered.

"WHAT! NO, NO WAY," Elka said almost yelling.

"just go," Light responded pushing Elka into view.

Elka froze, shooting light a glare. she stepped up to the front, blue colorations forming where she placed her feet, she closed her eyes and breathed in. "one more thing, all of this. power, life, fear. this is all a game" Nyra muttered.

Elka opened her striking pink eyes and spread out her wings watching the uncertainty and doubt in the eyes of the thousands watching. her heart sank and she closed her eyes again. " a game that has been played over and over with the same results each time,"

She held her head up regally like she wasn't just some idiot who got pushed.to her surprise...or fear they started bowing one by one, row by row, they all fell. she stood there in disbelief and worry, but it was too late to walk out now. she roared the blue underneath her feet pulsating through the crystal and on to the walls beautiful designs of swirls pulsed through the room. the dragons roared in response to her echoing off the walls their calls shook the earth, she stood there panting from excitement head held high. "to survive the game, to beat the system you must play to win.......game on!"

pushed away

It had been two months since the defeat of Grimmle, and Elka was still reeling from the loss of her trainer. she had unwillingly become the queen of all dragons which shouldn't have been allowed but ok. and she had become mates with Copper.

Elka sighed walking through the bustling hidden world was hard, even harder when every ten feet there would be dragons hoarding around you and bowing all the time she had enough of it, she was annoyed by all the formalities and customs she had to get used to now that she was 'queen'. she hated her new title. Why did I even try to do something when Light pushed me up there, I should've just acted like a fool and be shamed by the entire world.

she thought kicking a stone through the crowd. Someone shrieked, a blood-curdling noise Elka looked up eyes scanning the crowd for movement, a circle of dragons all muttering and shifting uncomfortably looking down at something. Or someone. she bound towards them.

"move," she muttered and the crowd got out of her way.

She gasped in the middle of the crowd was a dead Death gripper, blood still flowing out of it. It twitched a little then lay still she felt bad for the poor thing reminded of her friend Vera who would never have accepted a death like this. she started to step towards it then something on the ground caught her eyes she looked down and her heart stopped, written on the ground in blood was a message: the keys are aligning when I find who I'm looking for this will only be the beginning- beware the hearts of shadow.

"Everyone leave, NOW!" she roared a sense of serious foreboding washing over her.

Her pupils slitt alarm-bells flaring int he back her mind she scrambled behind a coral formation and looked out to see a monstrous Nightmare contorting in pain blue and yellow scales turning smokey black yellow eyes rolling up into its head and replaced with neon green ones with slitts for pupils.

"Master, no sign of her, maybe Nyra speaks the truth and she is dead," the voice sounded like rusty knives were trying to sharpen themselves on concrete.

"fool refer to me by my name! She must be alive,"a different voice replied out of the same dragon.

"yes Neberu," the Nightmare responded.

Elka sucked in her breath the Nightmare was heading in her direction. The Nightmare must be part of the shadow legion. she flew up to the second level on the coral shelf, it fit her colors better. she realized just how lucky she was for having silent flight when the Nightmare walked by.

"Nyra!" Neberu roared.

There was a soft hiss then Nyra appeared.

"What!?" she growled.

"you dare speak to me like that," Neberu hissed.

"What, sir?" she added.

"will you make yourself useful and tell me the whole truth for once?" Neberu growled back.

"by what telling you what you want to hear even if it's all a lie," she retorted.

The Nightmare glared at her green lightning formed all over Nyra's body, Nyra shrieked falling to the ground, as soon as it had come it stopped and Nyra was left on the ground gasping for air chest heaving.

"try me again and you'll know what real pain is," Neberu hissed.

"fine have it your way, it's dead there's one in a million chance it's alive," Nyra panted.

"it has pulled off one in a million before. Nyra you can leave this discussion is over," Neberu muttered watching Nyra go then leaving its self.

Elka let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. The Nightmare looked around then continued on its way, Elka glided down shaking. she walked over to the Death gripper and touched her nose to its head in respect, she called over some dragons to bury it. she absent-mindedly flew to her new home in the throne room of queen's, she sat in her cave and stared at a puddle contemplating the events of the day.

"Elka?" Copper asked from behind her, Elka jumped.

"Copper, oh my Thor I'm glad your here!" She cried running to him and throwing her head over his shoulder.

"uhhhhh.....you okay Elka?" he asked trying to weave his way out of her 'hug'.

Elka explained about the Death gripper and the writing in blood, she left out Neberu, Nyra, and the shadow legion because she thought Copper would freak out.

"Whoa, who could kill a Death gripper like that?" Copper asked.

"I don't know, "Elka lied.

"look I'm tired right now so talk to you in the morning?" Elka muttered quickly pushing Copper out of her home.she lied down on the soft plants in her nest and closed her eyes.

She fell into a feverish sleep plagued by nightmares, all of them horrible. she tossed and she turned but couldn't get comfortable. she was sitting up silhouetted by the pale blue light of the crystals, another silhouette sat nest to hers, outlined by blue.

"Copper?" she muttered looking over her shoulder instead she saw two neon green eyes surrounded by black.

she gasped and recoiled at the sight of them barring her fangs than the haunting vision melted into Copper his expression fearful he was backing away from her.

"s-sorry thought you were something else," she muttered expression softening.

" don't you mean someone else?" he asked.

"no," she said rubbing her head along Copper's.

"oh, I just wanted to see if you were okay you were screaming," he said looking her in the eyes.

"yeah, nightmares," she muttered laying back down Copper settled next to her.

she felt his warmth next to her and closed her eyes yet again this time she finally managed to get to sleep. she had no dreams but something rang around in her head for some reason it went like:

(i did not make these lyrics, they belong to Fall Out Boy: jet pack blues)

She's in a long black coat tonight

Waiting for me in the downpour outside

She's singing "Baby come home" in a melody of tears

While the rhythm of the rain keeps time.

She woke up early and went out to do her patrol she only had to do this every other day, Toothless said they all had to do this, her shift lasted from midnight to seven am. she flew as she quietly sang the lyrics in her dream.

"She's in a long black coat tonight waiting for me in the downpour outside singing 'baby come home' in a melody of tearswhile the rhythm of the rain keeps time,

without thought, she continued singing feeling her voice and spirit grow more powerful.

She's in a long black coat tonightWaiting for me in the downpour outsideShe's singing 'Baby come home' in a melody of tearsWhile the rhythm of the rain keeps time."

Sure it was not the happiest song in the world but she needed something to distract her from reality. she switched to a different song seeing the cold silver light of the moon her eyes drank up the light and it took her a second to adjust then started singing again.

(I also do not own these lyrics, full credit to Panic! At The Disco: LA Devotee)

The black magic of Mulholland DriveSwimming pools under desert skiesDrinking white wine in the blushing lightJust another LA DevoteeSunsets on the evil eyeInvisible to the Hollywood shrineAlways on the hunt for a little more timeJust another LA DevoteeJust another, just another, uh ohJust another, just another, uh ohJust another, just another, uh ohJust another LA Devotee

The black magic on Mulholland DriveSwimming pools under desert skiesDrinking white wine in the blushing lightJust another LA DevoteeSunsets on the evil eyeInvisible to the Hollywood shrineAlways on the hunt for a little more timeJust another LA DevoteeJust another, just another, uh ohJust another, just another, uh ohJust another, just another, uh ohJust another LA Devotee

LA DevoteeLA DevoteeLA DevoteeLA Devotee

The black magic on Mulholland DriveSwimming pools under desert skiesDrinking white wine in the blushing lightJust another LA DevoteeSunsets on the evil eyeInvisible to the Hollywood shrineAlways on the hunt for a little more timeJust another LA DevoteeJust another, just another, uh ohJust another, just another, uh ohJust another, just another, uh ohJust another LA Devotee"

She didn't quite know what she was singing about but she liked the tune. she sored into the sky looking down onto the black stony shores of the hidden world, Toothless sailed past her, his shift had ended. she kept singing the song from her dreams, liking how it sounded though it was sad, she liked how relatable it was. the other one though the tune was nice and it was upbeat, she didn't know what it was about.

She flew in circles around the border of the Hidden World, after a while her eyelids felt heavy and she nearly fell out of the air once or twice. She landed on the black beach, staring into the water that so perfectly reflected the stars, ripples crossed the surface she looked at it a bit harder, she then realized that a shoal of herring was close to the surface. She tensed her muscles and lept into the water, she splashed around for a second before managing to get her mouth around a herring and leaping out of the water victorious, she shook herself spraying water everywhere.

"impressive," A high pitched scratchy voice hissed behind her.

Elka stiffened, she tensed her muscles and slowly turned around, she lit up her icy fire feeling the cold seep through her body and the pale blueish-white light bathed the beach in color. she finally lay eyes on who had spoken to her. a shady black outline sat in the shadows it's piercing green eyes locked with hers. She panicked and shot at it, three icy charges exploded on the sand leaving frosty crystals in thier wake. when the mist cleared the dragon remained sitting there, it made high pitched coughing sounds witch Elka assumed was laughter.

" you missed," it said beginning to walk towards her.

"I won't miss next time," She growled raising her hackles and slitting her pupils.

"I'm sure you won't," it sneered, "however It's a shame that you can't kill the shadow legion."

It disappeared in a puff of smoke, she stood there for a second all was silent then whispers broke the night. The dragon wasn't back, it was a different thing, a humanoid creature with bright green eyes appeared in front of her it was looking right at her when it laid eyes on her its eyes lit up. it looked at her then spoke.

"I have been waiting a long time to finally meet you, Elka," it hissed she recognized it from the monstrous Nightmare.

"What do you want," she demanded trying to be as threatening as possible.

it merely looked at her "that is not of discussion," It muttered darkly.

it approached her and reached out a boney finger, she recoiled at the touch but soon she had nowhere to fall back to, it tapped her in the center of the forehead and her eyes rolled up into her head and she fell to the ground and faded to black.

Nightmares

she opened her eyes, the bright daylight seared her eyes she let out a small hiss and closed them. she opened her eyes again she blinked a bit then slowly sat up she groaned head pounding, she noticed something wet was running down her face from her nose to the side of her face, she licked it wincing at the tangy metallic taste of blood. She walked to the ocean and looked at herself blood was running out of her nose and her fur was matted and clumped stuck together with dry bits of her blood, she licked her paw and ran it through her fur, the tangled clumps slowly worked themselves out. she sat there staring at herself wondering what had happened. she looked back at where she woke up and saw that a ton of blood was staining the sand she shook herself hearing a strange noise she then realized a heavy iron band was now attached to her right foreleg, it was engraved with skulls and she couldn't see how to get it off.

she tried smashing it on rocks and prying it off didn't work. She tried getting it wet then blasting at it to shatter it but nothing worked.

Okay don't panic, dragons get attacked by nightmare demons all the time. okay, who would be able to get it off, Nightshade would just tell me to rip off the leg, Sunstone could melt it but she would freak out and panic if I told her, Copper would look concerned and not know what to do, Scarlett would laugh at me, Thunder would go on a rampage trying to kill Neberu, Vera yes Vera would work she has acid that could melt the metal and I can rely on her.Having made up her mind Elka took off flying into the hidden world.

She scanned the crowd, looking for her friend but she couldn't find Vera, Elka kept flying thinking of a place Vera would hangout. she knew Vera preferred to stay away from anyone and everyone, Elka kept flying she came to what she was looking for a giant hole in the ground beneath it was darkness she hovered for a second then dove down into the blackness. as her eyes adjusted to the dim light she realized it was like a whole different plane of existence, black statues lay in ruins all over the ground pillars lay crumbled and the place seemed to light up with blue and silver with strange markings on the walls.

something hit her from behind sending her spiraling to the ground, she landed heavily on her back, a cloud of dust erupted from underneath her. Elka coughed struggling to get to her feet the meatal band weighing her to the ground it was glowing silver with pale blue mist swirling around it, she winced the sharp loud feeling of a stinger driven into her back, Elka collapsed on the ground aware of everything around her, Vera stood over her snarling.

"Hey Vera," Elka croaked looking up at her.

" * * * * Elka, I didn't know it was you!" Vera muttered.

"same vocabulary as always I see," Elka teased.

"well, what is it," Vera asked.

"whats what?" Elka responded.

" you didn't come all the way here to insult my use of words did you,"

" Okay so I have this metal band around my foreleg and I can't get it off, can you melt it?" Elka asked.

"what's it made of?"

"regular iron I think, "Elka muttered.

"Okay, show it to me,"

Elka held up her leg with the band on it, Vera looked at her funny then slowly responded.

"there's nothing on your leg,"

"what?! but it's right here!" Elka said hitting it with her paw.

"Elka there is no band!" Vera growled.

"you- you can't see it?" Elka asked.

"no Elka I can't see what doesn't exist,"

Elka let her foreleg drop to the ground it hit the rocky ground hard, CLANG! the noise echoed through the cavern.

" -the * * * *!" Vera growled.

"see!" Elka exclaimed trying to stand up.

Vera reached out her pincer to try to touch the band that she could not see and to Elka's horror Vera's leg when straight through the band.

" oh, Thor," Elka muttered in shock.

"what?" Vera answered, looking up.

" y-your leg went through it," Elka said looking at Vera's pincer.

Vera's gaze slipped from Elka's eyes to her leg.

" WHAT THE HEL !"Vera yelled looking at her pincer.

"What!" Elka said arching her back and looking around.

" I saw something, it was dark and when I opened my eyes there were dead dragons, strewn around the hidden world, some had been gored and others had been gutted, blood lined the walls and something was chasing me, then when I escaped the world....you were on the beach with bands around your other legs and one around your neck, you were glowing silvery blue and this misty liquidy stuff was flowing out of your mouth, you were contorted in pain and Copper lay dead at your feet, then I realized I was staring at my own dead body and I saw Nightshade, Scarlett, Sunstone, and Thunder all dead, and this black smokey figure was standing over me, green eyes with blood-stained hands and mouth. it looked at you smiled wickedly then turned to me and muttered 'it won't be long now' it laughed and I snapped back," Vera muttered.

" Vera that thing you saw the one with the green eyes. that's what did this to me," Elka muttered.

"what does it want?" Vera asked.

"It wants Elka's power, in a sense," someone else echoed.

" * * * *!" Vera roared turning quickly.

"What the Nyra?!" Elka hissed.

the black whispy dragon was sitting behind her Vera backed up eyeing Nyra.

" wait Elka you KNOW her?!" Vera asked.

"Yeah, long story," Elka muttered.

"what are you doing here?" she asked turning to Nyra."the better question is what are you doing here?" Nyra hissed."I was looking for Vera," Elka muttered.

"why?" Nyra asked.

"It's none of your-"

"it found you, didn't it?" Nyra murmured fear lacing her voice, she locked eyes with Elka and in a heartbeat, Elka knew that Nyra's words weren't a guess.

"look-" Elka started.

"no you didn't listen," Nyra growled.

"It wasn't my fault!" she whined.

"It's too late for deciding who's to blame, but you screwed up and everyone's gonna pay the price for it," Nyra hissed.

"how am I supposed to fix this?" Elka cried.

"hide," Nyra muttered.

"not possible," Elka retorted.

Nyra hissed " I know this thing better than anyone, there is no way you can fight it! now leave you shouldn't be down here. both of you," she muttered looking at Vera.

Elka took off paws leaving the ground, Vera quickly followed both flying up into the bright world above, Elka and Vera paused for a moment to adjust to the sudden shift in light, Elka headed back to her hame and Vera followed. they landed in Elka's home and looked at each other and an awkward silence covered the room.

"Elka who was that!?" Vera roared.

"someone," Elka replied dodging the question.

"what are you not telling me?!" Vera hissed infuriated

"what's going on with me does not involve you!" Elka growled back.

"now it does, that shadow dragon or whatever just said something was after you so now it is my problem too," Vera snarled.

"fine, since you obviously can't leave it alone I'll tell you, but no one else can know," Elka hissed.

she reluctantly told Vera everything, by the end of it all Vera just sat there starring at Elka.

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Vera asked

"how? how could I just tell someone?! do you hear me? I sound insane!!" Elka roared.

" well, now you do!! just listen okay, our friends are still here and if I were you I'd find them I'll be with Nightshade if you need me," and with that Vera left.

Elka sat there listening to the sound of water dripping from a stalagmite in the cave, the navy walls seemed to close around her sealing her off from the world, she remembered her old friend Luna and then other memories started to pop back into her head, most of them she wanted to forget. she remembered when Ryker killed Echo the deathsong hearing the silver dragons final screech of agony before falling limp, or when she watched her best childhood friend Luna struggle to breathe choking on water turning red with her blood, or when Johann cut Kaya's eye with a dagger in an attempt to kill her.

she remembered the song kaya had sung to her when she was really little and when she had to say goodbye it went something like: (I did not make this credit to Fall Out Boy the kids aren't alright)

"Stuck in the jet washBad trip I couldn't get offAnd maybe I bit off more than I could chewAnd overhead of the aqua blue

Fall to your knees bring on the raptureBlessed be the boys time can't captureOn film or between the sheetsI always fall from your windowTo the pitch-black streets

And with the black banners raised as the crooked smiles fadeFormer heroes who quit too lateJust wanna fill up the trophy case again

And in the endI'd do it all againI think you're my best friendDon't you know that the kids aren't all, kids aren't alrightI'll be yoursWhen it rains it poursStay thirsty like beforeDon't you know that the kids aren't all, kids aren't alright

And it's our time now if you want to to beMore the war like the carnival bears set freeAnd your love is anemic and I can't believeThat you couldn't see it coming from me

And I still feel that rush in my veinsIt twists my head just a bit too thinAll those people in those old photographs I've seen are dead

And in the endI'd do it all againI think you're my best friendDon't you know that the kids aren't all, kids aren't alrightI'll be yoursWhen it rains it poursStay thirsty like beforeDon't you know that the kids aren't all, kids aren't alright

And sometimes I just want to sit aroundAnd gaze at my shoes yeahAnd let your dirty sadness fill me upJust like a balloon

And in the endI'd do it all againI think you're my best friendDon't you know that the kids aren't all, kids aren't alrightAnd I'll be yoursWhen it rains it poursStay thirsty like beforeDon't you know that the kids aren't all, kids aren't alright"

Elka slumped over she felt worse then she had in a long time, she wished someone anyone would help her. she looked up at the ceiling and fell on to her back she sighed and looked at the left wall, she decided that it was an uncomfortable position so she flipped over she saw the large clawed foot of a smokey black dragon, she yelped and sat up Nyra standing right beside her.

"someone's feeling sorry for themself," Nyra muttered.

"why'd you follow me?" Elka asked.

"why not?" Nyra responded.

"It's creepy fam!" Elka growled.

"I was going to tell you that you should join your friends," Nyra responded.

"oh yeah, so I can once again get told that I'm insane. and why do you care anyway? Elka snapped.

"Because you're acting funny and you should be with your friends," Nyra replied.

"what...what do you mean i-it was a joke," Elka said unsure of what Nyra was talking about.

Nyra seemed to calm down and Elka was still confused.

"look, you should go out while you can before things get worse," Nyra replied looking at the ground.

" wait they get WORSE?!?" Elka whined.

Nyra said nothing but nodded still starring at the ground Elka realized that Nyra had four of the bands on her and chains attached to one of them.

"What happened to you?!" Elka yelped looking at Nyra's bands.

"I made a mistake a long time ago and it came back to haunt me," she muttered turning away from Elka. Elka got the sense that it was a touchy subject so at that she left to go find her friends.

Elka scanned the crowd looking for her friends desperate to get away from her problems. she spotted Nightshade and Vera arguing with Sunstone, Scar, and Thunder. Elka landed behind them and they swiftly turned faces lighting up upon seeing her.

" heyo wassup!" Sunstone said sniffing the air and looking in Elka's direction. (Sunstone is completely blind due to abuse when she was little, the dragon hunters had ownership over her and kept her in the dark and when she misbehaved she got stabbed repeatedly in the eye)

"okay it still creeps me out when you know where I am," Elka muttered.

Sunstone shrugged smiling.

"oh look the 'queen' finally has time for us," Scar said sarcastically.

"shut up Scar she's been busy with the.....Bud light virus....going around...yeah...that's a real thing," Thunder started to say then trailed off.

" uh-hu... yeah because that darn thing spreads so fast and is super deadly," Scar muttered rolling her eyes.

" you two are the dumbest life forms I've ever seen," Nightshade hissed.

" what about Snotlout?!" Scar said.

" fine the second dumbest happy?" Nightshade corrected.

"very" Scar responded.

"so what were you guys talking about?" Nightshade stiffened and Vera shook her head no and Sunstone grimaced.

" well, THESE idiots think that water is wet! IT ISN'T, THE DEFINITION OF WET IS WHEN WATER TOUCHES A SURFACE SO WATER ITS SELF IS NOT WET!" Scar roared.

"NO Scar water is wet!" Nightshade growled.

"oookay then, whatcha want to do? Elka asked.

" I wanna chill in your throne room," Sunstone said looking to the others to listen for their responses.

"I'm down," Vera muttered

"same," Nightshade said.

"Okay let's go," She jumped in the air followed by Vera, Nightshade, Scar, Thunder, and Sunstone.They flew down the winding indigo tunnel past the blue crystals and landed on the shelf of coral near the red wall and the geothermal pools.

"so what you guys wanna do?" Elka asked.

"torture small animals?" Scar asked enthusiastically.

"other than that," Elka said.

"can we chill in the hot springs?" Thunder asked.

"ooh! good Idea," Nightshade agreed in the corner Scar pouted about not being able to torture small creaturs.

They lept into the pool splashing the water everywhere, Thunder started humming the tune to the fourth of July. before Elka knew it she was singing along.

(again I did not write this, owned by Fall Out Boy)

"(You and I were, you and I were fire.You and I were, you and I were fire.You and I were, you and I were fire, fire, fire)

It was the fourth of JulyYou and I wereyou and I were fire, fire fireworksthat went off too soonAnd I miss you in the June gloom tooIt was the fourth of JulyYou and I were,you and I were fire, fire, fireworksI said I'd never miss you, but I guess you'll never knowWhere the bridges I have burned never really led homeOn the fourth of July

I'll be as honest as you let meI miss your early morning companyIf you get meYou are my favorite "what if"You are my best "I'll never know"

Oh, I'm starting to forgetJust what summer ever meant to youWhat did it ever mean to you?

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean any of itI just got too lonely, lonely, whoaIn between being young and being rightYou were my Versailles at night

It was the fourth of JulyYou and I wereyou and I were fire, fire, fireworksThat went off too soonAnd I miss you in the June gloom tooIt was the fourth of JulyYou and I were,you and I were fire, fire, fireworksI said I'd never miss you, but I guess you'll never knowWhere the bridges I have burned never really led homeOn the fourth of July

My 9 to 5 is cutting open old scarsAgain and again 'til I'm stuck in your headHead my downward spiral, never mind I'll be drownedAnd I'm the holy water you have been without

And all my thoughts of youThey could heat or cool the roomAnd now don't tell me you're fineOh, honey, you don't have to lie

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean any of itI just got too lonely, lonely, whoaIn between being young and being rightYou were my Versailles at night

It was the fourth of JulyYou and I wereyou and I were fire, fire, fireworksThat went off too soonAnd I'll miss you in the June gloom tooIt was the fourth of JulyYou and I wereyou and I were fire, fire, fireworksI said I'd never miss you, but I guess you'll never knowWhere the bridges I have burned never really led homeOn the fourth of July

I wish I'd known how much you loved me, hmmI wish I cared enough to know, um, hmmI'm sorry every song's about youThe torture of small talkwith someone you used to love

It was the fourth of JulyYou and I wereyou and I were fire, fire, fireworksThat went off too soonAnd I'll miss you in the June gloom tooIt was the fourth of JulyYou and I wereyou and I were fire, fire, fireworksI said I'd never miss you, but I guess you'll never knowWhere the bridges I have burned never really led homeOn the fourth of July"

"Dang, your good!" Vera commented.

everyone stared at Elka and she splashed them with her wing, they all flinched away and splashed her back. they all laughed throwing water at each other and the song seemed to linger capturing that moment forever. they eventually got bored of chilling so they decided to fly to the king's throne room(as recommended by Vera) they came to a fork point, Vera went left and Elka hovered there confused.

"uh...Vera wrong way," Elka chimed.

" I know," Vera said.

"oookay...," Elka muttered skeptically.

The rest of the flight was in silence, Elka tried as best she could to blend in with them to not be noticed by the crowds of dragons below her. she was confused about where Vera was taking them and why she had to lie about it to get everyone to come. She hovered over something when it came into view for Elka she hissed at it and hovered over it mad at Vera. below her was the place she and vera were before. as the others caught up Vera dove into the darkness and the others followed.

"of course she did because Vera doesn't give a crap about this," Elka hissed to herself reluctantly following them into the hole.

she followed them through the mase of black blood-stained sculptures of dying dragons, and one that perhaps disturbed her the most was one of a spear with a monstrous nightmare's skull on it, rotting flesh held the jaws together and below it was a human skull eyeballs rolled up into its sockets, hair, and skin still attached to its skull blood dripping from its mouth and it pooled on the ground, the strong metallic scent of blood filled the room. Nightshade hissed softly her electric blue eyes scanning the cavern for movement, Thunder sparked up, Electricity emanating from her scales lips drawn in a nervous snarl, Elka couldn't help but find herself doing the same thing eyes slitting and a guttural growl emanating from her throat. Scar just looked around a gleam in her eye, Elka would never understand her. Sunstone wrinkled her nose and emitted a heat signal she used this kind of like echolocation, she'd emit her heat the activate her heat Pitts feeling her way around, anything that the heat couldn't reach was being blocked by something, using this she can find and pick up objects.

"Vera where are we going?" Nightshade growled.

"what? are you scared," Vera asked.

"for your sanity," Elka responded.

The others snickered at Elka's remark. all of the sudden Scar burst into laughter.

"HAHAHA! look at that guy *snicker* he died, HAHA!" Scar continued laughing, she laughed so hard she fell out of the air and onto the ground.

she landed next to a dead silver bellied green scale, it was just bone now but it had the special spines of a green scale. Scar continued her giggle fit. the others landed next to her, Elka also started laughing not thinking about what she was laughing at. she slowly breathed in and out and started singing a song that was funny in the situation. (twin skeletons (hotel in NYC) Fall Out boy)

"There's a room in a hotel in New York CityThat shares our fate and deserves our pityI don't want to remember it allThe promises I made if you just hold onHold on, hold on, hold on, hold on,"

Scar knowing the rest of the song couldn't breathe she was laughing so hard. eventually, she calmed down and stood on her feet.

Elka stepped back from the others her foot slipped and she fell into another darker hole her cries for help reached deaf ears and she kept falling, she hit the ground with a thud she scrambled to her feet and walked down a dark corridor. her breath echoed through the tunnel. a light came from the end of the corridor. and she heard a familiar voice echo off the walls, she crouched down and slowly walked to the corner of the tunnel, a nitch was carved out and a fire burned in it, a human skull was impaled on a spike it was beginning to burn across from her were multiple impaled things, a dragon skull, a human skull, and a bloody heart.

"the old world is fading," a voice announced.

in a heartbeat, Elka knew it was Neberu.

"and the fire that we're about to light will end humanity," it paused.

Elka peeked around the corner, sure enough, the nightmare its self was standing on dead crystals blue fire lit in the corners of the room, thousands of dragons sat beneath it watching patently.

" We have found our CHAMPION!" It yelled as the dragons roared in excitement.

the blue fire at the edge of the room exploded. It looked to Nyra who looked shocked.

"It-it lives?" Nyra asked.

"SHE lives," Neberu corrected.

Neberu surveyed Nyra's expression with a disdainful look.

"and how do you feel about this?" Neberu asked.

" I-I don't know, I'm happy I guess," Nyra responded.

"lies," Neberu growled.

"where do your loyalties lie?" Neberu growled advancing on Nyra," what have you told her?" Neberu's clawed hand lit up with green electricity as dragons in the crowd jeered and hissed.

"STOP!" someone yelled from down the corridor, all the attention was diverted, Elka heard wing flaps and she curled her wings around herself and tucked her head and tail in pretending to be a rock (surprisingly the rocks there happened to have purple and blue glowing fungus so she blended in).when the noise passed Elka cautiously got up and looked to see who it was.

she gasped looking upon who it was, she was mad and scared, she couldn't think straight, standing next to Nyra was none other than the Light fury!

"Stoppit! none of us knew she was alive," Light said in Nyra's defense.

the dragons went silent and looked at each other and grimaced.

"How can you gauge how truthful someone is based on thier response to an irrelevant question?" Light cried.

the dragons roared in agreement.

"silence!" Neberu roared and the room went deathly silent.

"Light you make a good point... instead of asking questions you two may prove yourselves to me," Neberu muttered Nyra and Light exchanged worried glances.

" and if you don't... well Light you're still in debt to me, and Nyra well," Neberu sparked up its hand Nyra backed up, then Neberu turned its attention to light, its palm began to glow green and light shreiked she backed into a wall trying to shake something off when she opened her eyes they were green she tried to blink it away but it clung to her, Neberu's palm went dark and her eyes returned to normal.

" what do you want?" Nyra asked.

neberu smiled wickedly.

"I want you to draw her out," Neberu hissed.

Neberu held up its hand and in the blue flame shone a picture of Copper.

" This is her mate find this dragon,​​​​​​ and kill him," Neberu growled, Light and Nyra looked horrified, and a cold dread sank into Elka's heart they were going to kill Copper.

the fire

Elka turned around and flew off as fast as she could, her heart beating as fast as her wings, she flew up through the opening her friends calling her name in a panic.

"Elka! there you are!" Nightshade exclaimed.

"no time they're going to kill him," she said eyes darting wildly around the room, she flew in a figure-eight muttering that repeatedly.

"what?!" Thunder asked.

"just go!" Elka roared flying off quickly.

Thunder immediately caught up Nightshade was behind her followed by Scar, Vera and Sunstone.

Elka flew as fast as she could knowing that they could catch her.

there's no way that Light and Nyra would actually kill him, but then again.

Crack! she hit a mushroom shelf head-on she hit the ground hard hse struggled to breathe blood pouring from her broken nose, she got up and kept flying while trying to breathe, Creeeaaak... BOOM! the mushroom shelf fell over Elka stopped hearing the screams of her people she stopped and landed reluctantly to help, she asked a zippleback and a quaken to help her lift the shelf off of any trapped dragons, they did so with the help of her friends, they lifted it and dozens of trapped dragons out from underneath the mushroom everyone thanked her she nodded, blood still in her face and took off again.

she flew as fast as she could Thunder right next to her Nightshade struggling to keep up and she has lost the others.

"Slow down!" Thunder yelled.

Elka didn't listen. she was to caught up in her panic to realize what was happening. Elka ducked into the throne room corridor in time to see Light powering up her blast, blue eyes now green, Elka bowled into her side, knocking her off the crystal shelf.

"ELKA!" Copper yelled perking up.

"heyo!" she responded.

something hot hit her flank knocking her off the crystal, she hissed pulling herself back up to see Light standing over her powering up her blast Elka yelped and let go spreading her wings and gliding away the plasma blast hit the water enveloping the room in steam, Elka flew up behind Light and knocked her into the water and blasted her (shooting to stun). and flew down herself, the two faced off against each other, hissing and growling Elka shot her blast next to Light, that was a mistake she remembered what her blasts did in the water. forgetting Light was trying to kill her she ran up and sheltered her with her wings and just in time as the water erupted into turmoil, bubbling and foaming ice shards shot around the room. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! her blast exploded underwater Elka gritted her teeth as the freezing liquid hit her back repeatedly then it calmed down, but Elka knew it was far from over, sometimes when it seems to have calmed down it has really gotten worse. Elka lept into the air carrying Light, who had stopped trying to kill her. Elka let her go onto the crystal shelf and landed herself.

"It looks fine now," Copper muttered looking at the water.

"Are you sure about that?" Elka asked grabbing a plant frond sticking it in the stream and hitting it against the wall, it shattered into a billion pieces and made a sound like glass as it did.

Copper hovered there wide-eyed.

"that could've been my leg," he responded.

"I can fix it!" Light said back to herself, she flew down and shot it multiple times, the water boiled and steam rose from the surface."yep, but now we need to leave the nitrogen to oxygen neon and argon concentration is way off," Elka muttered flying out of the room followed by Light and Copper.what met her outside of the throne room shook her to the core, fire, everywhere dragons shrieking the blue flames licked the cavern roof.

" * * * *, I look away for ten seconds and this is what happens," Elka growled.

she spotted Toothless in all this chaos and flew to talk to him she landed carefully Light and Copper flanking her.

" Where WERE you!" Toothless growled.

" I-I" Elka started surprised by his hostility.

" You're the queen of the hidden world! You need to take responsibility for your people!" Toothless hissed.

" But," Elka began.

"No! You're only thinking about your self, you have responsibilities now so maybe you should at least act like it," Toothless said flying off to control the fires, a group of scouldrons accompanying him as well as Light.

" he's wrong you know, you're a great queen," Copper soothed.

" no, I'm not, he's right I don't deserve this title, I didn't even want it! Light just pushed me, I let everyone down and I can't even hold my own against N-" she paused, she knew she already had said too much.

" against who...?" Copper asked.

" n-no one," she replied, Copper, shot her a look.

"I think we should get to putting out the fires," she muttered flying off.

she blasted a fire and it hissed sizzled and went out, she flew to a separate cavern.

" Copper you take the north wing I'll take the west," Copper nodded and flew off.

she coughed the some in this cavern was way worse she could barely see she shook the smoke out of her eyes she powered up a blast and aimed at the rock wall, her markings glowed silver cutting through the smoke. her blast hit the wall and exploded in a shower of white and blue light she was blown back a few feet but recovered and summoned the rest of her strength to ram full force into the wall, it shattered rock shards hitting the ground, a large hole was revealed and the central room was revealed.

" EVERY ONE OUT!" she roared.

a storm of dragons flew out of the smoke some scouldrons and snow wraiths stayed to help her with her fire, a timberjack swept its wings and blew the smoke away so they could see the fires. Elka told the scouldrons were to fire she eventually reloaded her blasts and they put out the fires, the cavern was all grey and blackened by smoke.

" This place is a mess," she muttered surveying the damage the fires had caused.

"Thanks, guys," she said to the scouldrons who nodded and headed to the main cavern.

she flew to the north wing to check on Copper, he was probably good but she wanted to check anyway. When she got there the fires still raged and the dragons huddled around something Elka couldn't tell what it was. the crowd parted upon her arrival, she whispered to each other, she caught hints of what they were saying.

"...there was a..."

"...is he okay?"

"...whats happening?"

"...fight..."

"...dead.."

"...no,"

she turned them out and when she finally saw what was there her heart stopped. the fire, the smoke the deaths of those caught up in it, was just a distraction! a light show to split us up.

she choked on air she looked down at the cold grey stone, stained red with blood, lying on the ground glazed over eyes blood pooling beneath him was Copper. out of the corner of her eye, she watched a flare strike walk-off she sat on the ground and just stared at him, burn marks up and down his side cuts across his back, she brushed her tail over him hoping that he would magically be alive.

Panic seized her mind she charged grabbing the dragon by the throat while she could. she knocked them to the ground and grabbed their windpipe pulling it cleanout the dragon lay dead on the ground and she found herself holding its detached throat in her mouth wondering what she had just done. for the second time that day she panicked looking around she quickly shoved the body under a low growing tower fungus and pushed a rock in front of it, she ran over to the stream and washed off her face and paws then hopped to the opposite bank and grabbed a juicy red pomegranate off of the small tree-like shrub she carried it across and sank her claws into its thick red skin, she pried it open tossing the piece of skin aside she sniffed the fruit and ate a bit of it (she couldn't help herself) she licked her chops and began tearing the fruit apart scattering the ruby red seeds everywhere she mauled the fruit but left some of it intact the juice masked the blood on the ground. it was the best she could do, for now, she flew off to find Scar.

It shouldn't be hard, she's probably surveying the damage and laughing at burned bodies or something. I'll never understand her. Elka thought looking at the blackened ground below. she finally spotted the small red and white grim gnasher she landed next to Scar who jumped tow feet in the air hissing.

"Whoa, someone's jumpy today," Elka muttered.

"You'd be 'jumpy too if there was a reward on your hide," Scar retorted.

"How do you know there isn't?" Elka replied.

Scar thought for a second then shook her head.

" what do you want?" she growled.

" I...killed someone," Elka muttered looking around.

" Pfft yeah right, you'd never-" Scar said looking at Elka.

Elka nodded.

"oh Thor you did," Scar muttered.

" what do I do?" Elka asked.

" fake identity, a human ship is coming bye soon if we catch it-"

"n-no like how do I cover it up?" Elka asked.

"oh... less fun but we can make it work," Scar muttered unhappily.

Elka told Scar where she hid the body and Scar flew off to go take care of it Elka flew back to the north wing to check on copper. when she got there her other friends were controlling the crowd she landed next to Nightshade who was whipping her tail at someone who got too close.

Elka said nothing but looked down at her paws. "Elka, what aren't you telling me?"Sunstone asked.

more silence.

"Elka!" Sunstone growled.

"fine, I'll tell you all later, but you might not want to hear it," Elka retorted.

"Nightshade, can we go?" Elka asked.

Nightshade picked up Copper and they all flew off to the throne room, the only room in the hidden world that remained unburned. Nightshade let Copper down gently in his cave, then flew to the huge yellow crystals and landed.

"What did you mean back in the caves, what weren't you telling us?" Sunstone asked.Elka explained everything when she finished talking the room went silent and her friend stared at her wide-eyed even Scar came back and understood most of it.

"I can' ask you guys to help me with this," Elka muttered.

"Are you crazy!? we're your crew and as your crew, we are entitled to help you," Nightshade responded.

"tell us who's after you," Thunder growled sparking up.

"I can't," Elka responded.

"why not?" Thunder asked.

"I can't say the name, or it would appear," Elka muttered.

"I'll write it out, as long as you do not say it," Elka began drawing in the dust her friends peering over her shoulder, they all paused for a second and then stared directly at Elka's leg band.

"from now on, you are telling us stuff like this!" Nightshade growled."How was I to know you'd understand, that you wouldn't think I was insane, think about it the stuff I just told you sounds crazy!" Elka pleaded.

They all looked at the ground and shuffled uncomfortably the only sounds in the room where the crystals and the trickle of water.

a high-pitched whining noise droned on from outside and caught the attention of everyone in the room. Toothless flew in and her friends straightened all except for Scar, who fled the scene diving behind the green glass shell looking things.

"hi Toothless, um what are you doing here?" Elka asked.

"damage check," he muttered.

"I heard there was an incident," Toothless prompted.

Elka's heart started racing.

"what do you mean?" Elka asked.

"I think you know what I mean, is Copper okay?" he asked.

Elka let out a breath of relief.

"he's fine now, still don't know who did it," she lied.

"glad to hear he's okay," Toothless muttered.

"collateral damage?" she asked.

"none...so far, I sent out a patrol of tracker class dragons to find bodies," he responded.

"do you know anything about how the fire started?" he asked.

"no," she lied again.

"a-and thanks for getting those dragons out of the west wing, how did you do that?" he asked.

"had some help from the scouldrons," she muttered.

"Okay, I better go," he muttered flying off.

her friends calmed down a bit and Scar slunk back to where they were standing.

"so what are we going to do about this?" Sunstone asked.

"the only thing we ever do, "Elka responded.

"crash the fish stocks?" Scar asked.

"no," Elka scoffed.

"almost get you killed?" Vera asked.

"no!" Elka replied.

"blow stuff up?!" Thunder asked hopefully.

"ugh...no, no more interrupting, "Elka sighed.

"we're going to do what we always do, something stupid," Elka replied.

"I'm down," Scar laughed.

"It's getting dark guys, go get some sleep and I'll meet you here at midday," she muttered watching her friends nod and fly off, except Vera.

"Vera? aren't you gonna leave," Elka inquired.

"I have nowhere to go," Vera muttered.

"you can crash at my place," Elka said Vera's face brightened.

"it's the one with the blue crystals around it," Vera flew off and went inside it.

Elka sighed, she flew to Copper's cave, she touched her nose to his, she regretfully left and flew to her own cave. she settled down on the dark floor. she fell asleep for a bit, but then was woken up by Copper, he looked panicked.

" yeah?" Elka asked groggily.

Copper said nothing and Vera was nowhere to be seen.

she looked at the far wall and her eyes snapped open with a start, blood covered the wall it had another message in it...

one of the five keys are in place, the time has come secrets are unwinding...she doesn't want you to escape.

Elka was so confused, then something clicked in her mind, Vera's vision, she had five bands on. she looked down her one band was glowing faintly green.

Copper yelped and stepped back, Elka launched herself at Neberu who dodged out of the way and she crashed into the wall before she could react Neberu had its finger on her forehead. and once again she collapsed.

Secrets and keys

Elka woke up slumped against the wall, another band had been fitted around her foreleg, she groaned and lifted it up, it wasn't too heavy but she felt really sick, her head was spinning and everything hurt her body seemed to be made of lead the blood on the wall was gone she stumbled around the cave and crashed into a wall that collapsed into another chamber room, small plants glowed softly she was so tired she dizzily walked down into the chamber and fell asleep on the ground up against the wall.

when she woke up she had slipped away from the wall her face was right next to one of the glowing plants it was a blurry bright green lump. she felt better, not dizzy not weighed down, she noticed two cold stones were touching her stomach, she got up and shook herself, she assumed the stones came from the cave in and she walked out of the darkroom, now she could clearly see all of the blood on the wall was gone. even the scratches on the wall had disappeared. She shuttered, remembering what it had said... one of the five keys are in place, secrets are unwinding...she does not want you to escape. who is..she? what do the keys do? what secrets? she flew out of her cave to clear her head...she needed a break.

she spotted Scar and Thunder and flew over to them, a large mass of dragons was surrounding Toothless...more than usual her other friends were sitting tail lengths away from Thunder and Scar. she noticed Vera and Copper were there too, luckily they were no worse for wear (except for Copper's healing cuts and large burn from yesterday). she landed near them and her friends acknowledged her existence by staring at her other foreleg and going quiet all exchanging worried glances whilst Copper sat there confused at what they were looking at.

"so what's going on here?" Elka asked to break the tension.

Scar glared over at Toothless, her lips pulled over her gums in an angry grimace, "Light laid eggs today, and T wants everyone to know..." she spat.

"what's so bad about that?" Elka asked.

"because T is taking all the credit for it," Nightshade hissed.

"look at them, all groveling at his feet...congratulating him on something he didn't do," Thunder growled.

Toothless looked around for a second and spotted Elka and her friends and ran over to them the crowd of dragons following him they squashed Elka and her friends she was having a hard time breathing in the frenzied crowd of dragons, she roared at them and they backed off wide-eyed some even bowed.

"hey, Elka!" Toothless roared running to her.

"Hey T," she replied.

"so have you heard the news?" he asked excitedly​​​​​​.

"yeah!" she replied.

"oh, Thor I'm just so happy for Light! at first, I thought she was sick-"

a thought triggered in the back of her mind...something was up.

"sick?" Elka asked.

"yeah, she was dizzy, really tired and she kept complaining everything hurt she could barely walk! I couldn't stand to see her like this so I went to find a healer...when I finally came back she was laying on the floor with three eggs," Toothless explained.

"I'm so happy for you," Elka replied.

"all these bozos just keep giving me all the credit...' good job Toothless... congratulations Toothless'...' blah blah blah Toothless'..." he hissed pointing his tail at the crowd of dragons.

Elka shot a smug look at her friends who began hitting her lightly on the head with their talons.

"soooo," Toothless continued.

"Is there anything new with you and Copper, you guys became mates around the same time as us." Toothless asked.